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Old 08-17-2010, 06:33 AM   #447
TimMason
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Brian Levack, in his 'The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe', estimates that the total number of people tried for witchcraft was a little over 100,000, about half of whom lived in German-speaking lands within the Holy Roman Empire. Poland and Switzerland also saw a relatively large number of trials. France was, as he says, 'the cradle of the great witch hunt', but was overtaken by Germany. There were about 5,000 trials in Great Britain, about half of those in Scotland, while about the same number occurred in Scandinavia.

Not everyone who was tried was executed. Contrary to popular opinion, the Church was quite careful about who they convicted, looking into other explanations for the ills that the witches were accused of. Secular authorities were perhaps less so. Outside of Germany and Poland, the percentage of those executed stood at around 50%, but in Germany it was closer to 90%. Altogether, during the period of the witch-hunt, about 60,000 people were executed for the crime.

Although a majority of the victims were women, this was not true everywhere. If I remember rightly, the majority of Scandinavian victims were men.
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